A background of the Rugby World Cup countries

With the 2015 Rugby World Cup now upon us, we’ve decided to take a look at the sporting history of the countries taking part where we have holiday parks:

England

Seven home wins in a row for tournament hosts England leave them in a good position ahead of their opener against Fiji, and coach Stuart Lancaster will be hopeful of taking the title away from holders New Zealand. They have won the Rugby World Cup on one occasion, the famous 2003 victory over Australia in which Jonny Wilkinson stunned the hosts in the final moments of extra-time to seal his (and the team’s) place in rugby history. Sadly it couldn’t be repeated four years later when South Africa ran out 15-6 victors.

Wales

Injuries to Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb left Wales hurting just over a week before the start of the World Cup knowing they will now be missing two of their key players for the tournament. In that game against Italy, Warren Gatland’s side went on to secure a less than convincing 23-19 victory which won’t have filled fans with hope ahead of their ‘Group of Death’ which contains England and Australia.

Scotland

Things have been looking on the up for Scotland since they failed to win any games at the Six Nations earlier this year as they secured a record breaking 48-7 win over Italy in their penultimate World Cup warm-up game. Scotland’s best performance in the competition came 24 years ago in 1991 when they were beaten 9-6 by England in the semi-finals.